Not everyone is cut out to be a skipper. We have had experience with Habibul Bashar leading the team. The best captains tend to be great strategist/tactician AND (best player in the team OR great leader).

Great tactician + best player + leader
I can think of two Aussies (Bradman and Steve Wagh) and Imran Khan.

Imran was not as great a tactician as many others, but he had a great one in the team. Imran would be talking to Miandad throughout the match. Although Miandad lost his captaincy to Imran, he always obliged.

Pataudi became a captain at only 21 and almost immediately showed his value as a captain. We all know Dada's story.

All of this brings us the question, who has been Bangladesh's best ODI captain? Mr. Bashar was as bad as it gets. Mushfiqur has made many bad decisions and even repeated some bad decisions. Shakib is not the best tactician and gets too impatient to be a good captain.

Who do you think has been our best captain so far? If appropriate, I'll add a Poll later.

(I have my preference, but will disclose it later. I am almost sure that my choice will be a controversial one.)

Mohammad Ashraful did not fulfill his promise as a batsman. However, for the few matches he was the captain, I liked the way his mind operates. He was not averse to taking risks, if the reward was high. He was pretty good at out-of-the-box thinking. He had the potential to be a good captain, only if he could be only average with batting. Alas, it was not to be.

A 'best' in anything signifies the most successful in the position. A captain with calm/precise/tactical attitude with the success rate of 2/10.. against someone very bold/impatient/implicit in strategy but the success rate of 5/10...clearly distinguishes who the most successful is. And the most successful is always the best(in the job, may Not be in personal qualities). regardless of the methods of approach.

Hence, whoever won us the most matches after a reasonable amount(maybe 10+ matches) of captaincy, is the best.

Originally Posted by Umar
A 'best' in anything signifies the most successful in the position. A captain with calm/precise/tactical attitude with the success rate of 2/10.. against someone very bold/impatient/implicit in strategy but the success rate of 5/10...clearly distinguishes who the most successful is. And the most successful is always the best(in the job, may Not be in personal qualities). regardless of the methods of approach.

Hence, whoever won us the most matches after a reasonable amount(maybe 10+ matches) of captaincy, is the best.

I absolutely disagree. The best captain is who gets the best results given the resources available. For example, MAK Pataudi was one of the (if not the) best captains of Indian cricket. He did not have the team to win consistently, but he won way more than he was supposed to (given the strength of his team).

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
Shakib was best...politickin kore ber kore dewa hoisilo...and what's this bs abt he cannot handle too much pressure and his game would be hindered....homeboy THRIVES under pressure.

we need an alpha male to lead us...not a 2 feet 2 hobbit

Edit: Mushy is very intelligent no doubt. He also plays a good role of sheet anchor to rotate strikes and prevent megacollapses. But I think he cannot handle pressure as much as Shakib.

Though I don't want Shakib to be the captain now. But I've to agree with you on that point.

Shakib does keep his cool in a very pressure situation and can clinch a victory from a losing position. His captaincy in the NZ series is a proof of that, specially the 5th ODI where he had a very small total to defend and NZ was looking like heading towards victory. Shakib looked frustrated, angry at times but he made the right decisions on the field. Same happened when he was playing in DPL and BPL. So many times it looked like his team is going to lose but he somehow managed to win those. I think Ash has the same trait as well. But Mushy looks completely clueless and stupid in those pressure situations. Another best thing about Shakib is, he is probably the only captain in BD cricket history who lead his team from the front. Captaincy didn't quite affect his performance.

But I still believe Mushy will learn and will be matured over time. The best thing about Mushy is he manages the team very well, which definitely is not Shakib's forte.